short tailed opossums?

Question

1.what kind of pet do they make
2.are they hard to take care of
3.do they enjoy being held
4.do they, and all their supplies cost to much, or can i use hamster cages and houses as their cage

anybody have a STO as a pet, what have your experienced with them been like

thanks
(and serious answers please)

Answer 1

Short tailed opossums are great, if you want a pet that is not cuddly and does not need your attention all of the time. They are very self sufficient and do not need human contact.

I had one named Spanky for five years. She died of old age since life expectancy is not that long. The only time that I had to take her to my vet (who specializes in exotics) was when she had dermatitis and lost the hair on her butt. When I got her about 10 years ago, there were not many around at that time and the information on them was not that available.

She never tried to bite me or anything like that. They are easy to care for, as they like using the bathroom in one area of their cage. So you can pick out the poop and dirty bedding every day with a cat litter scoop. I changed the entire bedding in mine's cage once a week.

They are much like hamsters in that they do like shredding things to make a bed or burrying into the bedding to make their home. They are VERY nocturnal. They do not move around during the day. They will absolutely drive you crazy if you put a hamster wheel or anything that they can play with like that in their cage. They do love running on the wheels but they will do it literally all night long. They love the hamster balls too, so they will run around the house in that too.

For food and water that is a daily thing. They will use a water bottle. They eat crickets like crazy too, and meal worms. Those are their favorite foods. They also need fruits too. Just watch giving them anything with too much water in them as it might dehydrate them through getting diarrhea.

For the holding thing, mine would let me hold her and walk around with her. She would even try to hang on my finger with her short tail.

For the cages and such. Hamster cages will work. NOTE: they have basically suction cups on their feet like the regular opossums have. They can climb things like crazy so make sure that the top is completely closed and unable to be opened by them. They can manipulate things with their paws since they are a opossum. They will use hamster houses and toys just fine. I kept mine in a reptile cage that was a wooden cage with a glass opening front that was about 4 feet long by 2 feet deep by 3 feet tall. It was a custom thing for my aunt's monitor. It had vents in the back and sides. Spanky would crawl up the sides and the glass all the time. Whatever she could climb she would do it.

Try putting branches or other things for them to climb in their cage. They will like the little bit of outdoors and freedom that you give them.

They are not mean animals, but if you do not get them adjusted to you and handle them regularly, they will hiss at you like a big opossum. If you have other pets in the household they will do this to them as well until they get used to them. During this point in time when they are hissing, they could bite, so handle them with a lot of care at that time.

Supplies will not cost you that much especially if you already have them. Feed is a little more difficult to get, unless you have a pet store nearby to get meal worms and small crickets from. Make sure to remove the crickets legs before giving them to them because they could slice their throat as they eat them or could cut them due to the sharpness of them. You can raise mealworms at your home, they sell kits for doing this on line, and all you need is wheat bran and a plastic container to raise them in.

So, if you want something that is not going to be your best friend, that is just going to be there for you to take care of, a STO is a good pet. I hope that this helps. Have fun if you get one and do lots of research on them so that you know when to tell if they are getting sick and so that you can give them as much in your home as what they would have in their natural environment.

Answer 2

Short Tailed Opossum

Answer 3

I had a female a few years ago and bred her once. They are nocturnal and not naturally social animals so they don't really seek out handling and interaction with humans the way social animals like rats and birds do. Mine tolerated being handled but I can't honestly say she enjoyed it. She never tried to bite. My friends who adopted her babies had the same experience. I kept her in a two story hamster cage and she fed on chopped fruits and feeder insects (available at stores that sell reptiles). She used a single corner of the cage for her bathroom and she did not have any real odor like rodents can .She was a very enjoyable and interesting little pet despite the fact that she was not that "cuddly". She lived about 4 years which I think is average for them.

Answer 4

you make out with it